Hypothetical
by Shar-dono
Summary: Slightly sappy 6x9.


Hypothetical   
  
  
/*What-ifs, what-if. 6x9. Non-lemon. I'm shocked.*/   
  
  
  
Noin gasped and choked on the notion, the single, most outrageous,   
far-fetched, ridiculous idea she had ever been presented with.   
  
"Well?" Her dining partner persisted. "Are you?"   
  
"Hell, no!" She managed between subsiding wheezes, wondering what in   
the world brought that on. "He's my best friend, damnit!"   
  
"Hypothetically, Lu," The other woman shrugged, determined to wheedle a   
confession out of her. "Suppose, just suppose, if you weren't?"   
  
"Hmm..." Noin laughed and took a bite out of her dinner. "He =does=   
have a great bod..." She began chewing on her spoon and the comic   
possibilities with which she was compelled to play along. "And those   
tresses are waaaaaay too sexy..."   
  
"He's an Ace Pilot and top of the class..." Miki's eyes gleamed evilly   
over the rim of her glasses, conspirationally. "And doesn't that mask   
of his just turn you on?"   
  
Lucrezia Noin wasn't about to go into THAT particular gorge. Besides,   
she found what laid beneath his hard helm far more enticing. Oooooh   
yea~, Zechs Marquise was Top Cookie and she was no ice-cube herself;   
except, the whole concept, the picture of him and her together, it was   
so =wrong= somehow.   
  
The said object of desire chose this moment to join them. The sight of   
him, impeccable, well-groomed, masked pilot of mystery... ~Zechs and   
Noin... yea, right.~   
  
Zechs lifted an eyebrow at his friend beneath the cold metal he chose   
to wear for the world. She was drowning in giggles.   
  
"What?"   
  
It only got her deeper.   
  
***   
  
Miki's little supposition got her thinking, though, and Noin realised   
she was curious of what he might think. Granted the only thing on his   
mind seemed to be war, he would have to admit it was an interesting   
thought.   
  
He gave her a curious look. She was getting better at reading his   
under-the-mask expressions. "Was that what you were so tickled about   
over dinner?"   
  
"That mask of yours appears to be far more attractive than you think."   
She grinned wickedly, remembering Miki's longing comment. Zechs studied   
the chessboard between them with considerably less interest in the   
conversation topic. The firelight they played by danced languidly   
across its polished skull, painting it an interesting rose-orange, a   
fatal sunset. Intriguing as the sight was, she could not quite   
understand Miki's obsession with it.   
  
"50%."   
  
"Eh?" Her attention snapped back to the game. He hadn't moved, still   
bent over the array of ivory and ebony pieces. "What?"   
  
"The chances of such a mission succeeding." He smiled up at her, a   
teasing, chaste smile with its familiar wry corners. A smile just like   
any other from Zechs Marquise to Lucrezia Noin.   
  
Noin's eyes widened innocently. Her next words were in a breathless   
awe. "You think?" Both fell away to mirth.   
  
"Oh yes." He maintained a very matter-of-fact attitude about it, but   
she could see the mischief darting in his eyes. "If there wasn't such   
persistent business as war and politics."   
  
"Or military rules against romantic liaisons."   
  
"Yes, it would be scandalous for the discipline."   
  
"As soldiers we are not suited to commitment. We never know if we'll   
return from the battlefield alive... and all that time away..." She   
bent over the board. "Zechs... Ow!"   
  
She rubbed her brow reproachfully. "I knew there was a reason I hate   
that thing!"   
  
Zechs removed his mask and ran his fingers across the smooth metal   
plate unsympathetically. "I'm surprised you didn't put a dent in it."   
But he got up to get her some ice and something to hold it in. The mask   
landed on his bed for taking up his hands.   
  
She accepted the compress, not actually needing it. Her approach into   
the question was distracted, hypothetical, as she busied herself   
studying the chessboard. "Zechs? What if there isn't any of those   
things? Just you and me."   
  
He watched her, the firelight doing things to her skin and hair. The   
effect was almost intimidating in its strangeness and there was   
something different about her in the question, something which he knew   
would disturb her too if she could see herself.   
  
But it wasn't all bad.   
  
"Hypothetically, I'd do this." He startled her now by lifting her chin   
and kissing her, with a gentle pressure on her lips, a quick chaste   
peck.   
  
She could only stare at him with a genuine wide-eyedness as he pulled   
away, chuckling at this very sight.   
  
"And, I'd do this." He couldn't honestly say how much of it was a joke.   
She seemed stuck in a dream-state, a predicament that he now shared as   
he drew her up to him and picking her up, took her to his bed. The   
metal helm cluttered dully to the carpeted floor when he swept it off   
to make room for her and suddenly, he was very aware of this sweet lady   
on his bed, devotedly his, strong and beautiful, his.   
  
He was never miserly with his admiration for her. Truly, she should be   
the top of their graduating class in the academy, not him. It surprised   
him now that while he'd admired her perfection openly, the true impact   
of it always eluded him; the impact of a woman on a man. He felt it   
now, drawing him down to kiss her again, a little longer and bolder,   
with more tender passion. She was so vulnerable in the fire-light,   
dressed only in a shirt and britches, wide-eyed and unsure of the   
situation.   
  
"Lucrezia Noin," He smiled softly at her. "You are my best friend." And   
pulled her up after him, holding her hands only as long as necessary   
and went back to the game.   
  
"Zechs...?"   
  
"Hypothetically, Noin," The grin he now gave her was positively evil,   
the regular Zechs she was more used to playing with. "If you had been   
paying more attention, you wouldn't have to clean my cockpit in the   
morning. Checkmate."   
  
***   
  
50%. She never quite got that one, but that was okay. It wasn't   
anything particularly important anyway; and then there was the war.   
  
...A year and thirty-two days.   
  
"But, Noin, you used to hate war."   
"I'm honoured you remember."   
  
...Not that it actually meant anything.   
  
"Noin... I'm just glad that you're alive."   
"Because if I died in the line of duty, I would be promoted two ranks   
ahead of you?"   
"You sound alright to me."   
  
...Best friends are there for you. More importantly, best friends are   
those you need to have there for you.   
  
"I'd feel more secure with you supporting me."   
  
...Because we are only human, because always, however strong we want to   
be, however strong we are, we need to have someone we're able to count   
on when we inevitably fail.   
  
"I can't tell the truth to her, because I am now Zechs Merquise of OZ,   
with a bloody history."   
  
So it was up to Noin to watch over her, Relena Peacecraft, baby sister   
of Milliardo Peacecraft. Indefinitely, because between them, there was   
no need for the words "If I should die". It was understood.   
  
...Even when you fight,   
  
"Noin, get out of the way... ... Noin. Pull back."   
"I won't. Even if you kill me."   
  
...You know you can trust them to come around. Afterall, there's   
nothing left to trust anymore except your guts, skill, and your best   
friends. And if you can't even count on that, what else is there?   
  
"I won't stand in your way. Just let me stay with you."   
  
...Someone you can count on to come back.   
  
"There isn't any need. He's out there, somewhere."   
  
...It's crazy, almost, but it's all there is left in a world obsessed   
with war and politics. There's so many sides you don't know which one   
is right anymore. Maybe there never was a right one to begin with.   
  
"Yes, Zechs. It's been a year and two days." Meticulously precise, good   
ol' Noin.   
  
Because if he were dead, she would know. She didn't know how, she just   
knew she would. And in case she didn't, he'd make sure to tell her.   
  
***   
  
There was always hope: and more trouble. Unfortunately, the latter   
seems to be the more effective on him. He was, in his own words, "a man   
unsuited to peace". It made them so wildly different, and yet, the   
same. Noin hated war. She hated the politics that led to war. But she   
was a pilot, too. "Because I love space", she always said. But more   
importantly, because Zechs needed someone to watch his back. He always   
will.   
  
Well, that was over, finally. Heero Yuy took care of that like she knew   
he would. It was a mild way to epilogue the last battle of the Gundams,   
but it was the way she would close it. There were uncertainties, of   
course, like Zechs she was a soldier that at the end of the day, knew   
only war.   
  
"Is it alright?" Noin looked over at Zechs in the co-pilot seat.   
"Terraforming is still far from ready."   
  
Zechs shrugged. Anything his sister sets her mind to was bound to be   
reckless. She was his sister. "That's why it has to be done by someone   
who's supposed to be dead."   
  
She could tell he took pride in that description.   
  
Only now did he seem to realise that she was still on his ride. "Noin,"   
Zechs started, eyes locked on the pilot console even though there   
wasn't anything to lock on. His expression betrayed nothing but the   
smug satisfaction of the dramatic. His metallic mask had long broke and   
fell away, but not the one under his skin. "You don't want to be with   
the person I am now."   
  
She smiled. 'Don't be so transparent,' It said.   
  
"Please stop repeating yourself, Zechs." We know you want me, need me,   
to stay.   
  
But of course. Said the eyes briefly on her.   
  
"Remember the game we played? For cleaning my cockpit."   
  
There were many games played for that particular stake, but she knew   
what he was talking about, as always.   
  
"It's all over now." She agreed gently, staring out the window into her   
beloved weightlessness as he did. No more death...   
  
"No war."   
  
"Or blood..."   
  
"The future will be fine in Relena's hands."   
  
"Zechs..." She looked at him, and only then realise that he was looking   
at her.   
  
"50% odds, soldier." He had that teasing grin again, though strained   
with uncertainty. "Do you accept this mission?"   
  
Noin replied with a matching glimmer in her eyes. "Zechs, I can't."   
  
She smiled when he tried to turn away and pretend it wasn't such a big   
deal. Just a question. Didn't mean anything.   
  
She knew otherwise, of course. She always knew.   
  
He was startled by the hand on his shoulder, that she was suddenly   
standing beside him, that he'd fallen for that little snare. He should   
have caught that look in her eyes.   
  
"Of course." He chuckled and tugged her into his lap. "We're not   
soldiers anymore."   
  
"Just you and me now, Zechs."   
  
"I remember this part." There was nothing light or flippant about his   
kiss. It was as teasing as his words, only, in a different definition.   
  
Everything that needs to be said between them has long been said. They   
didn't need very many words.   
  
  
  
-=There you go, the "end".=- 


End file.
